Park hopping with toddler

[Jasmineandrajah]

Our son will be around 1.5 years old when we go to WDW. We plan to schedule in afternoon naps back at the hotel every day. Would you recommend taking this opportunity to park hop since we'll be leaving from the hotel again anyway? I'm wondering if this will make FP and ADR scheduling more difficult. For example, if we end up not actually wanting to park hop, we might be forced to because of an ADR at a different park... am I overthinking this? Does anyone have any advice or strategies? We'll be there for 9 nights.

 

[Capang]

It depends. How much do you want to get done in each park? How long do you plan on travel time and time for naps? We had hoppers with a 4 year old and never used them. We tried doing the midday nap thing but it just took too much time. She took naps in a stroller and we left the parks after dinner. In our situation the hoppers were a waste that trip. Will there be other adults or older kids with you? If so then maybe the hoppers would work because they could hop. If it is just the one child I would skip the hoppers.

 

[Jasmineandrajah]

It depends. How much do you want to get done in each park? How long do you plan on travel time and time for naps? We had hoppers with a 4 year old and never used them. We tried doing the midday nap thing but it just took too much time. She took naps in a stroller and we left the parks after dinner. In our situation the hoppers were a waste that trip. Will there be other adults or older kids with you? If so then maybe the hoppers would work because they could hop. If it is just the one child I would skip the hoppers.

Thanks for your reply. We'd like to get as much done as we can but not stress out if we don't get to something. Yeah I'm thinking our little guy may just take naps in the stroller. It'll just be my husband and I and our baby. Gonna take another look at my dining reservations and see if I can make it a little simpler for us!

 

[loves to dive]

Or it might make it easier. We have always had park hoppers and always will. We go back to the resort when someone, either my son or I get tired. We relax then decide what we want to do for that night. We don't make ADRs in advance, we do it day of just hop on MDE and find what's available, with hoppers it doesn't matter where it is. I'm assuming with one that young, character meals aren't going to be that necessary so the sky is the limit.

 

[TOBS2010]

I grew up having park hoppers traveling with my family as a kid---so I am more so used to it. When we took our son at 2.5 we got park hoppers. He wasn't a nap in a stroller kind of kid. But it was nice to be able to have a few days during the week we were there to be able to spend a few hours in one park and then head back to the hotel for a midday break and then head into another park for rides or even dinner reservations. I think that you could plan your dining reservations and schedule to be without a park hopper. But for us at the time, Hollywood Studios was not a full day park. We did spend a morning there for some fast passes (frozen and toy story) one day and then another night ate at the boardwalk and saw the fireworks there. Both of those days we went to the Magic Kingdom earlier in the day. That said---one morning we went to the animal kingdom in the morning for breakfast, did the safari ride and the Lion King right when the park opened and saved our fast passes for the afternoon/evening in the Magic Kingdom. My son didn't nap as long or even every day because he was so excited to see and take in everything. We quickly learned that some days meant early bedtimes, but you just have to be flexible with your plans.